Patents: Flower power

作者：房巯 发布时间：2019-03-03 06:14:04

By BARRY FOX The recent craze of ‘rock flowers’, the plastic plants that appear to dance when music plays, may soon be followed by a plastic flowerpot from two American inventors that immediately sprouts a flower when watered (British patent 2 239 189). An imitation flower is held on the end of telescopic tubes. When the telescope is collapsed, the flower remains hidden inside the pot. Also hidden there are lumps of cellulose sponge. When the pot is watered, the sponges swell and drive the flower stalk out of the pot. Electrolyte in the dry sponge becomes active when wet and generates an electric current to light a lamp as the flower grows,